Lakhmehar Pardesi gave herself an early birthday present as she claimed a breakthrough maiden title in the ninth leg of the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour at the Noida Golf Course here on Friday.
The Chandigarh golfer, who turns 22 on October 15, stayed calm in the closing stages after trailing for most part of the final day.
Needing a clutch putt from around eight feet to ensure an outright win over Jahanvi Bakshi, Lakhmehar drained the putt and heaved a sigh of relief. Her previous best on the Tour was a fifth place.
READ MORE: Ridhima and Gaurika T-13 at Lavaux Ladies Open in France
"This is a big win for me. I have been waiting for this for a long time. I am so grateful to my coaches, parents and the NOIDA Golf Club," said the youngster.
Lakhmehar carded 2-over 74 in the final round to total 227, while Jahanvi (75) was one behind at 228.
Amateur Avani Prashanth, who has regularly figured in contention, was once again the top amateur and was overall third at 230. Avani had the best round of the day at even par 72.
Avani shared the third spot with Hitaashee Bakshi (76). For Avani, this was the sixth top amateur prize in 12 starts on the Hero WPG Tour. Of the six times, she was once the overall winner.
The action will resume on October 13 with the tenth leg at the Chandigarh Golf Club.
J&K Open
Delhi's Honey Baisoya carded a superb six-under 66 in round three to take a four-shot lead in the J&K Open 2021 golf tournament in Srinagar.
Six-time PGTI winner Baisoya (67-69-66) has played error-free golf for the first three days of the tournament and did not drop a single bogey.
Rookie Kartik Sharma (69-72-65), carrying forward the form from his top-20 finishes in the last two weeks, produced the day's lowest score of 65 to take a leap of 15 spots to tied second at 10-under 206 at the Rs 40 lakh PGTI event at the Royal Springs Golf Course.
Panchkula's Angad Cheema (69-71-66) fired a 66 to gain 10 spots and end the day in a share for second place along with Kartik and Ahmedabad's Shravan Desai (69-68-69).
READ MORE: Sandhu shoots 69, Sharma rallies in second nine for 70 at Dutch Open
Baisoya, whose last win came in 2018, has attributed his consistency this week to his top-class striking with the 2-iron and his new putter.
"I've not played well in a while so I was nervous from the start of this event. But I've been hitting my 2-iron well and that helped set up a lot of opportunities for me. I made 17 greens in regulation today and 16 each on the first two days," he said.
"My new putter has also helped my scoring. I missed the cut last week because of my poor putting so I’m glad that I changed my putter just a day prior to this week's event."
Delhi's Rashid Khan, Bengaluru's Khalin Joshi and Karnal's Mani Ram were in tied fifth place at nine-under 207 while Pune-based Olympian Udayan Mane and Gurugram's Veer Ahlawat were a further stroke back in tied eighth position.
Indian golf legend Jyoti Randhawa was placed tied 37th at even-par 216.
Comments
SHARE